A swinging apparatus including a base, a support installed above the base, and linear actuators coupled to the base and the support has been proposed.
For example, a conventional swinging apparatus described Patent Literature 1 includes six linear actuators each mechanically connected to a base and a support. In the swinging apparatus, the six linear actuators support the load of the support, and a combination of extension and contraction movements of the linear actuators realizes various swinging motions of the support.
However, in the above-described conventional swinging apparatus, the six linear actuators have to be responsible for both force for swinging the support and force for reliably supporting the support and a user so that the user does not fall down also when the support is strongly swung. Thus, the entire size of a mechanism including the six linear actuators increases, which requires a large installation area for installation of the swinging apparatus.
Moreover, in the above-described conventional swinging apparatus, each of the six linear actuators is mechanically connected to the base and the support, and therefore, when one of the six linear actuators is stopped, the operation of other mechanisms may be locked as a consequence of the stopped linear actuator, which may lead to a risk of breakage of the mechanisms and/or a risk of falling down of a user.
In the above-described conventional swinging apparatus, since each of the six linear actuators is mechanically connected to the base and the support, precise coordination of the six linear actuators in terms of the extension and contraction movement is also required so as to realize various motions of the support, which requires very complicated control.